Samuel Porter, Baron Porter

Samuel Lowry Porter, Baron Porter, (7 February 1877 – 13 February 1956) was a British judge who served as a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary from 1938 until 1954. He was one of the few judges promoted directly from the High Court bench to the House Lords without serving on the Court of Appeal.

Early life and career Born in Headingley, Leeds, Porter was the son of Hugh Porter (born 1877), a warehouse manager, and his wife, Mary Ellen Lowry. He also obtained a half-blue in tennis.

He was called to the bar by the Inner Temple in 1905, developing first a good general practice, then specialising in work in the Commercial Court. He was Recorder of Newcastle under Lyme from 1928 to 1932 and Recorder of Walsall from 1932 to 1934. A member of the Oxford Circuit, he served as a commissioner of assize on the South-Eastern Circuit in 1933, replacing Mr Justice Horridge who was detained by work in London.

Judicial career

High Court On 7 November 1934, he was appointed to one of the two new judgeships in the High Court of Justice created to clear congestions and arrears in the High Court, and authorised pursuant to an address from both Houses of Parliament. Assigned to the King's Bench Division, he received the customary knighthood on 23 November.

According to Harold Hanbury, "Porter's judgments in the King's Bench Division were always very sound. They were not spectacular, as he aimed at conciseness, and avoided the utterance of an unnecessary word." Though Porter did not have a high public profile, he came into prominence in 1936, when he chaired a tribunal of inquiry (whose other members were Gavin Simonds, KC and Roland Oliver, KC) appointed to investigate "whether any unauthorized disclosure was made of information to the Budget for the present year, or any use made of any such information for the purposes of private gain." On 30 March, he was introduced to the House of Lords and heard his first appeal. On 1 April, he was sworn of the Privy Council.

An appeal against the conviction of William Joyce ("Lord Haw-Haw") for treason came before the Judicial Committee of the House of Lords on 13 December 1945 and was heard by Jowitt L.C., Macmillan L.J., Wright L.J., Simonds L.J, and Porter. Joyce had been convicted of treason for his war-time propaganda broadcasts from Nazi Germany, but was not a British subject, and argued that holding a British passport had not given him the right to the protection of the Crown, so he had had no duty of allegiance to it once he left the country. The House of Lords rejected this argument. In his dissenting opinion Porter found that the question of whether Joyce had had a duty of allegiance to the Crown was a question of fact for the jury to decide, and not a purely legal question for the judge. Porter was interested in international law, and was president of the International Law Association in 1946. He was also involved with wage negotiations in the coal industry.

Porter resigned as Lord of Appeal in 1954 because of ill-health, having been promoted to be a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE) in the 1951 New Year Honours. He was succeeded by Gavin Simonds, 1st Baron Simonds, who was elevated to a viscounty on the occasion.

Selected cases

High Court

Mutual Finance Ltd v John Wetton & Sons Ltd 2 KB 389 Lloyds Bank Ltd v Bank Of America National Trust and Savings Association 2 KB 631

House of Lords

Duncan v Cammell, Laird & Co Ltd AC 624 Joyce v Director of Public Prosecutions AC 347 (dissenting) Adams v Naylor AC 543 National Anti-Vivisection Society v Inland Revenue Commissioners AC 31 (dissenting) Franklin v Minister of Town and Country Planning AC 87 Reading v Attorney-General AC 507

Privy Council

Commonwealth of Australia v Bank of New South Wales AC 235 Attorney-General for Ontario v Israel Winner (t/a Mackenzie Coach Lines) AC 541

Private life Porter never married.

Porter died at the London Clinic on 13 November 1956, having been due to serve as Treasurer of the Inner Temple in 1957. A memorial service was held at the Temple Church on 28 February 1956.